Chaos Theory Games has released a free Steam demo for Oaks vs Orcs, a roguelike strategy autobattler built around river placement, forest growth and automated battles against growing orc hordes.
Oaks vs Orcs is now available as a free public demo on Steam. Chaos Theory Games has put its river-based forest strategy in players' hands ahead of the planned PC release in 2027. Each run should take around 20 minutes, and a leaderboard tracks the strongest kingdoms.
The announcement has not yet received broad independent coverage. Searches of Steam, the developer's official web presence and major game-news outlets did not find a clearly matching Oaks vs Orcs page or a separate authoritative report. The closest Steam result was the unrelated-sounding Oar'some Adventures Demo. That result does not confirm any details about Oaks vs Orcs. This report is based on the supplied launch announcement.
The demo arrives
The premise is simple. The last living forest is under attack from an orc army hunting the Great Tree. Players must turn a tactical grid into a settlement and a fighting force.
Troops and defences are placed before each clash. Once the fight begins, the kingdom's army battles the incoming horde automatically.
The demo includes two playable decks and six campaigns, along with the invasion-level difficulty system. That gives the public build a defined part of the game instead of the full planned package. Chaos Theory Games says the complete release will add more decks, campaign challenges and unlockable perks.
Kingdoms shaped by rivers
Oaks vs Orcs is not about filling every open tile with units. Players extend a river from a single source and choose the route it takes across the board. Tiles connected to the water activate bonuses. The river's path also decides which groves awaken and how their effects move downstream.
Positioning shapes every build. A strong tile becomes more useful when the river reaches it. Another route may trigger a chain of effects across several groves.
The demo includes more than 50 cards. That leaves room for combinations that define a build without asking players to control every attack themselves.
The game sits in the same broad strategy space as compact deckbuilding experiments, including the survival-focused structure discussed in an earlier breakdown. Oaks vs Orcs takes a different path by tying terrain and water to automated battles instead of relying on cards alone to carry a run.
A short test with depth
The public demo follows a prototype released earlier in 2026. More than 7,000 players tried it. Their sessions lasted over an hour on average, even though the game is built around short runs.
Feedback from that audience shaped the demo's card pool, season pacing and boss encounters.
Chaos Theory Games has also described an extreme playtest in which a player spread swamp across every tile and reached wave 72. The result shows how much the game encourages experimentation, but it comes from the studio. It is not an independently measured benchmark, and it does not guarantee that every build can reach a similar result.
The demo includes multiple campaigns, a climactic boss encounter and an endless mode with leaderboards. Players can try the structured campaign format or see how far they can push a kingdom.
The advertised run time should make repeated experiments practical. The leaderboard gives players a clear reason to refine river routes and card combinations.
PC launch still ahead
For now, the release is limited to the free Steam demo. The full game is scheduled for PC in 2027. The supplied announcement does not give a more precise date, price, system requirements or information about other platforms.
It also includes no independent performance testing. The demo is best treated as a chance to assess the design, not as proof of final launch performance.
At the time of preparation, Steam and the official Chaos Theory Games website had not independently confirmed the specific figures cited for the demo. Those figures include the number of cards, campaigns, prototype players and the wave 72 playtest.
No major game-news outlet or news agency in the available search results had verified the claims. Those details therefore remain attributed to the supplied announcement or the studio, rather than presented as externally measured facts.
Chaos Theory Games is an Australian independent studio founded in 2011 by three childhood friends. It was named Australian Studio of the Year in 2024. The studio has previously released Crab God and Aether & Iron.
Oaks vs Orcs is the studio's next original title. The current demo shows a focused tactical idea that is already playable, while the scale of the finished game remains unconfirmed.
In an autobattler, the main decisions come before combat. Placement, selection and preparation determine what the army can do once a wave begins.
Oaks vs Orcs adds a spatial layer by making river connections part of that preparation. The board is not just a passive backdrop.
Based on the information available now, the demo offers a limited test of a distinctive strategy system. It is not a replacement for the 2027 PC release, and it does not prove how broad the finished game will be.
